Facing the Future Read online

  “You know what, Mr. Fogarty,” LeRoy said, his face clouded with rage, “you’re gonna be in trouble with somebody when we leave here, and you better hope it’s the home office.”

  “But I can’t—”

  “Yes, you can. You give us that check based on our word that we are who we say we are, and you deal with the home office yourself.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t—”

  “You don’t understand, Mr. Lawyer Man. We’re not negotiatin’. We’re walkin’ out of here with the check.”

  Fogarty gulped and looked for the file. Vicki was impressed that there was an actual check in the folder. “OK,” he said, “just let me see some ID so I’m covered.”

  Banks and Grey reached for their wallets and produced driver’s licenses. Fogarty made a big show of meticulously copying down every detail. “Now, the check,” LeRoy demanded.

  “This is really highly irregular,” Fogarty said.

  LeRoy closed his eyes as if struggling for a last sliver of patience. “Just hand it over,” he said.

  Fogarty handed it to him, and LeRoy glanced at the figure. He smiled and showed it to Cornelius, then began folding it. Vicki noticed three cops a few feet from her, guns drawn, preparing to burst from the back room. “Hey,” Cornelius Grey said, “wait a minute. What’s that say?”

  LeRoy had stood and was shoving the folded check into his pocket when he pulled it back out and studied it. Where his or Grey’s name was supposed to be were the words You’re under arrest.

  “What?”

  Fogarty flashed a badge from his pocket, “LeRoy Banks, you’re under arrest for the murder of André Dupree and for arson in the case of—”

  LeRoy and Cornelius were reaching for their weapons when the cops rushed in. “Don’t even think about it!” one shouted, and the two were disarmed, handcuffed, and led away. Vicki decided it was one of the coolest things she had ever seen.

  While Banks and Grey were being read their rights, Vicki heard another police officer on a walkie-talkie telling someone else to “move on Talia Grey.”

  Lionel stood in the kitchen of Judd Thompson’s house, watching Ryan finish the rest of his sandwich. Lionel talked with Talia Grey on the phone, wondering what in the world she was so excited about.

  “This is the weirdest thing,” she said. “You have to see this. Maybe you’ve already seen it.”

  “What, what?”

  “It’s a videotape. Connie said it was in the VCR he ripped off from a house not too far from here. Guy on the tape says he’s pastor of New Hope Church or somethin’ and that if we’re watchin’ this, it’s because he’s gone. He’s tellin’ all the stuff we must be going through, and he’s explainin’ what happened, just like what my mamma used to tell me. This is so cool!”

  “Yeah, I have seen it,” Lionel said. “Like I told you before, I was the only person in my family who wasn’t a believer. That’s why I was left behind.”

  “Me too, I guess,” Talia said sadly.

  “You can do something about that, you know,” Lionel said.

  “Um-hm,” she said, but from the background Lionel heard a doorbell and a loud knock. He recognized the doorbell as the one at his house, where Talia was. “Jes’ a minute, Lionel,” she said, and he heard rustling, as if she had slid the cellular telephone into a pocket. She had left it on.

  As Lionel heard her walk through the house toward the door, he heard the shout, from a woman police officer. “Police, ma’am, open up!”

  “I’m coming!” Talia managed. “Did something happen to—?” But her question was drowned out by louder banging on the door. “All right!” she said.

  Lionel stood transfixed on the phone, listening as she opened the door.

  “Talia Grey?” the policewoman asked.

  “Yes! What—?”

  “Miss Grey, you’re under arrest for—”

  “What? Under arrest? What’d I—?”

  “For home invasion, burglary, accessory to murder. . . .”

  “What? No! I don’t know anything about—”

  She grabbed her phone. “Lionel! Help! I’m being arrested.”

  Lionel wanted to tell her there was nothing he could do for her and that actually he was glad she was being dragged from his house. Maybe he could go home soon. But someone grabbed her phone and said, “Who’s this?”

  “Lionel Washington,” he said. “You’re at my house.”

  “Does Talia Grey have permission to be here?”

  “No.”

  “And you’re working with Fogarty?”

  “Sort of.”

  “Thank you, son.”

  “Thank you!” Lionel said. And he decided life was crazy.

  Judd was fascinated with how cops celebrated a sting that had worked well. They seemed unable to stop grinning. Fogarty and two others he had apparently known from his days in Homicide took Vicki and Judd to a coffee shop, where they sat reminiscing and congratulating each other. Everyone was impressed with the plan Judd had come up with, the performance by Vicki on the phone, and especially Fogarty’s acting. “You sucked them right in,” the older of his cohorts said. “You’ll be back in Homicide in no time.”

  “That’s what I want,” Fogarty said. “But the way I hear it, most of you guys have been working double shifts, just like the rest of us working stiffs.”

  The cops sympathized with each other about how much work they’d all had to do since the vanishings. “What do you make of it?” Judd blurted, wondering if he should interrupt an adult conversation. But they had treated him almost like an equal up to now.

  “Make of what?” Fogarty said, and Judd felt his face redden as everyone’s eyes seemed focused on him.

  “The disappearances. Where’d everybody go, I mean, in your opinion?”

  Fogarty shook his head. “I’ve heard every opinion from space aliens to Jesus,” he said. “One’s as good as the other, I guess.”

  Judd was at a loss for words. What an opening! Bruce had told them to watch for opportunities to talk about the truth, and he predicted that at a time as dark and scary as this, there would be plenty of chances.

  The younger detective said, “Seems like all we do is sit around asking each other if we lost anybody in the disappearances. Did you, by the way?”

  “Me?” Fogarty said. “Yeah. Two elderly aunts. It was the strangest thing, something that would make you believe God did have something to do with this.”

  Something in the way he said that made the others laugh, and Judd wondered why. Was it a joke? Did Fogarty pray that he’d lose the two old aunts? He didn’t get the humor.

  “Why do you say that?” Judd asked.

  “Oh, it’s just that nobody in our family has ever been religious, except on holidays, you know. Going to church on Easter and Christmas was all part of the routine, but none of us claimed to be church people. But those two aunts of mine all of a sudden changed.”

  Judd thought the young cop looked particularly interested. Fogarty kept talking. “They started showing up to family reunions with their Bibles. That was kind of strange. We all had Bibles somewhere. The wife and I have one stashed in a drawer. It was a wedding gift, I think. That was weird, because this is a second marriage for each of us, and we didn’t even get married in a church this time. But one of the aunts gave us that Bible. It was real pretty but it didn’t look right sitting out, so we put it away.”

  Judd noticed the young cop lean forward, ignoring his dessert. He had blond hair and wore his side arm in a shoulder holster. “But what about these aunts?” he said. “What’s their story?”

  “Well, one of ’em had a husband die, and she kept living in their big old house for six or seven years. Then the other became a widow, and she didn’t want to live in the same house she and her husband had lived in for so many years. So she moved in with the other. They were still young enough to be healthy, and they got out and about quite a bit. Somebody invited them to some kind of a religious meeting. It wasn’t at a churc
h. More like at an auditorium or something. Anyway, they started talking about getting saved and all that. They got religion, that’s all I know. Started going to church and everything.”

  The young one, whom Judd thought he had heard Fogarty call Eddie, was still listening intently. Judd didn’t want to admit he had forgotten the man’s name already, so he asked if he had a card. The cop pulled one from his pocket. Judd studied it. His name was Archibald Edwards. No wonder he went by Eddie.

  “But these aunts,” Edwards pressed, “they disappeared, didn’t they?”

  “Yup.”

  “You ever consider maybe they had been saved? I mean, anybody else in your family vanish?”

  Fogarty shook his head. “Well, my first wife. And I can’t say I was sorry to see her go.”

  The others chuckled, all except Edwards. He was on the trail of something, Judd decided. “She was religious too, right?” Edwards asked.

  Fogarty’s body language made it appear he wanted to move on to something else, but he said, “Yeah, matter of fact she was. I think that’s why we split. That and the job.”

  “Tell me about it,” Eddie said. “This job’s the enemy of marriage.”

  Fogarty nodded. “I was no saint. Gone all the time. I used to drink a good bit, you know.”

  The older homicide detective, a balding man with a huge belly, laughed. “That’s an understatement,” he said. “But it was what you did when you were drinkin’ that cost you your first wife.”

  “All right,” Fogarty said. “Enough said.”

  But Eddie the bloodhound was still on the scent. “So your wife and your two aunts—”

  “My first wife.”

  “OK, your first wife and your two aunts are the only people in your whole family who were religious, and they’re also the only ones who disappeared. Anybody else see a trend here?”

  “We’ve heard and read all about the various theories,” Fogarty said dismissively. “For all I know they were the only left-handers or redheads in the family too.”

  “Jeannie?” The old cop said. “Your Jeannie? She wasn’t either one!”

  “I’m just sayin’,” Fogarty began.

  “I’m telling you,” Eddie said, “there were guys on the job who told me about God and everything, and those guys are gone. It’s got me thinking.”

  “That’s dangerous,” the old cop said. Fogarty laughed.

  “Yeah,” Eddie said. “You guys laugh it off. What if it’s true? What if this was something God pulled off? Where does that leave us?”

  Judd turned to see if Fogarty had an answer for that one. Eddie must have taken Judd’s look as agreement. “You brought this up, kid. What’s your take on the vanishings? What do you make of it?”

  FOUR

  Meeting the Missus

  HOMICIDE detective Archibald (Eddie) Edwards had posed the question. The ball was in Judd’s court. Nervous and dry-mouthed as he was, he stepped and swung hard.

  Judd told Sergeant Fogarty and the two detectives his whole story, from being raised in the church, to rebelling, to running away, to the Rapture, to getting home, connecting with Bruce Barnes, meeting the other kids, praying to receive Christ, and moving in together.

  “So, you buy the whole package,” Eddie summarized, reaching for his wallet and sliding his portion of the restaurant bill over to Fogarty.

  Judd nodded, but it was the older detective who spoke. “ ‘Buy’ is right. Man, have you been sold a bill of goods, kid.”

  In his peripheral vision, Judd noticed Fogarty nodding. Next to Judd on his other side, however, Vicki gently pressed her elbow against Judd’s. He took that to mean she was with him, supported him, was glad he’d said what he said and that he shouldn’t worry what anybody else thought.

  Judd had hoped for more reaction than that from these guys. He didn’t expect them all to fall to their knees or ask him to pray with them, but he wanted more than sarcasm or amusement. They were standing now and paying up. Tom Fogarty paid for Judd and Vicki. As they made their way out, Eddie got between Fogarty and Judd and put his arm around Judd. “You know what, Tom,” he said, “this boy and his girlfriend and those other two kids ought to meet Josey.”

  The big detective, the older one, wheeled around and pointed in Fogarty’s face. “Now, that’s a good idea, Tom, and you know it. These kids ought to meet your wife.”

  “Excuse me,” Vicki said, as quietly as Judd had ever heard her. He decided these guys must have intimidated her. “First of all, I’m not his girlfriend, and—”

  “Ooh, ho!” the older detective said. “Touchy area, hm?”

  “Second of all,” Vicki continued, apparently unfazed, “why should we meet Sergeant Fogarty’s wife? I mean, I’d like to and all that, but I was just wondering what made you think of that, Mr. Edwards.”

  “Call me Eddie. Well, first off, I know she’d love you and you’d love her. She’s real warm and friendly. But ever since we’ve known her, she’s been talking about stuff like this. We were surprised Tom even married her, she seemed so religious, and his first wife was way overboard. So, we figured—”

  “And yet she disappeared, right?” Vicki said. “Along with Sergeant Fogarty’s two aunts and the other people you used to work with who you thought were too religious.”

  “Yeah,” Eddie said, pausing between the cars parked at the curb. “And I think there might be something to that. But Judd here himself said this pastor was left behind. And what about Josey Fogarty? She was all into angels and crystals and channeling and stuff.”

  “What they used to call New Age,” Fogarty said. “Most of those people think the people who disappeared had bad vibes or something, so all the good people were left.”

  “We know from personal experience that ain’t true,” the big cop said, laughing loud.

  Fogarty grinned and nodded. “Yeah. If we’re the good people, the world’s in a sorry state.”

  “The world’s in a sorry state anyway,” Eddie said. “But I still think Josey and these kids ought to get together. I’m tellin’ ya, you’d love her. But hasn’t she been talking like this lately, Tom?”

  Fogarty shrugged and looked away.

  “C’mon, Tom,” Eddie pressed. “You know it’s true. Isn’t she trying to drag you to some kind of a Bible study or something?”

  “Better that than those channeling sessions she used to like,” Big Man said, getting into his unmarked squad car.

  Eddie got into the same car on the passenger’s side, and Fogarty opened the door of his own squad car, prepared to take Judd and Vicki back to Judd’s car. Judd suddenly felt overcome with an urge to not let Eddie get away without talking to him first. He asked Tom to wait a second and stepped to Eddie’s window. “It was really great to meet you both,” Judd said, reaching in and shaking both their hands. “Sometime I’d like to talk to you some more about those other cops who disappeared, Eddie.”

  Eddie met his gaze. “Yeah, let’s do that. Seriously, I’d like that too.”

  Judd was certain that Eddie was curious and interested.

  Lionel and Ryan sat watching television at Judd’s house, waiting for news of the sting. More than an hour after it was supposed to have happened, they still had heard nothing. Lionel was worried. How long did it take to get to a phone and report in? He tried to make sense of what he was watching on TV, but it was all about the new head of the United Nations, Nicolae Carpathia. Bruce would have to explain this stuff to him. All Lionel knew was that since the Rapture there had been nothing on television except news, and he had never cared much for that before.

  Finally, the phone rang, but it wasn’t Judd. It was Talia Grey.

  “Talia!” Lionel said. “I thought you got busted!”

  “I did, fool. I get one phone call.”

  “And you call me? Shouldn’t you call a lawyer?”

  “A lawyer won’t do me any good now, Lionel. I know we hardly know each other, but I got nobody else. My brother and LeRoy are in deep trouble, and LeRoy i
s going to think I set him up.”

  “Why?”

  “He’s always accusin’ me of stuff like that. And Connie’s no kind of brother. He’d just as soon get me in trouble with LeRoy than help me out.”

  “Well, I can’t help you, Talia. I don’t have money for bail or anything like that.”

  “I’m not worried about bail, Lionel. I’m better off in here than on the street, where LeRoy or Connie can have me killed.”

  “Your own brother wouldn’t have you—”

  “You don’t know my brother. He’s tried to kill me before. And he told LeRoy about my tryin’ to signal you with your gym bag that one time.”

  “But they’re both going to be in jail for years.”

  “I know. But they also know everybody on the street. They’ll just have someone get rid of me, I know they will.”

  “What can I do?” Lionel said. “I can’t let you stay in my house again if you get out. That’s the first place someone would come looking.”

  “Don’t you see, Lionel? I don’t want to get out. I don’t want to be anywhere where they can get to me. I don’t care if I die in here. I might just kill myself.”

  “Don’t be talking like that.”

  “I’m just sayin’ I could die in here as easy as I could out there, and I know I’m not ready to die. You gotta help me get ready to die.”

  Lionel was speechless. She was flat out asking him to help her come to God. He had never helped anyone do that before, and while he thought he had an idea what to say, he wasn’t sure he could do it right then, right there on the phone. He would need to be sure he was doing it right, knew what to say, what verses to use, and how to be certain Talia understood and was being genuine. “Where are you?” he asked finally.

  She told him what precinct station-house jail she was in.

  “Can you have visitors?”

  “Yes, come and see me.”

  “I’ll try to get there tonight.”

  “Hurry.”

  “I will. I promise. Now can you tell me something?”

  “What?”